Comic-Con: Clone Wars - What to Expect in Season 4

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The creators of the animated Star Wars series show several action-packed new scenes.

By Eric Goldman

The panel for Star Wars: The Clone Wars at San Diego Comic-Con today delivered big time on new footage, spotlighting several new sequences introduced by panelists Dave Filoni (supervising director) and Cary Silver (producer).

Expanding on moments seen in a previously released Season 4 trailer (which opened the panel), we got a better look at the three-part story that opens the season, which includes major battles between the Mon Calamari and Quarren forcers underwater. In the first major clip we saw, Kit Fisto leads a group of "Scuba Troopers" underwater, accompanied by Ahsoka Tano. They travel down into the depths, where a character Filoni confirmed was CaptainAckbar led his troops against the Quarren, as Anakin, already among the Mon Calamari, says, "Reinforcements, finally!" The battle is brutal, as a shark-headed character swims through the Clone Troopers and, yes, bites their head off – the specific act of which is blocked by debris, bubbles and increasingly darkened water. Silver said the first three episodes of Season 4, which is subtitled "Battle Lines," are nearly "completely underwater."

The second scene continued to showcase some huge action, as we saw Republic Dropships releasing a horde of Clone Troopers riding on AT-RT's (as seen in Revenge of the Sith) for an attack against enemies on a planet Filoni revealed was Umbara – never depicted, but discussed before in Star Wars stories. Umbara is constantly shrouded in darkness, and the visuals on this scene were terrific with a mist lining the ground and the beams of light from the drop ships among the only major sources of life. The Umbarans have an impressive weapon they shoot at the Clone Troopers that vaporizes those it hits, while the Clones press on, one of them using the feet of their AT-RT to stomp down upon an Umbaran. Meanwhile, more Dropships land, releasing more Clone Troopers and Jedi.

A more humorous sequence focused on R2-D2 and C-3P0, which had several references to the opening of the original Star Wars, from C-3P0 asking, "Did you hear that?" to the two droids walking through major battles in the corridors of a ship, as Clone Troopers fight Battle Droids and Adi Gallia takes on General Grievous. With the order for evacuation given, C-3P0 looks for an escape pod, only for Artoo to lead him to a Y-Wing which another astromech droid is approaching. Artoo knocks the other droid out of the way and launches himself into the droid opening on top, as a very reluctant C-3P0 finds himself in the cockpit.

Another quick sequence showed the Clone Troopers in a space battle, flying new ships, Headhunters, which are a precursor to X-Wings. And we were also shown some very early, unfinished and uncolored animation ("George has not seen this yet!", noted Filoni) of the Nightsisters using lightsabers to fight a horde of Battle Droids, showing that there will indeed be more fallout from the split between Count Dooku and Asajj Ventress in Season 3.

Also shown was a clip which debuted on EW.com yesterday, in which Ahsoka and Lux are surrounded by Mandalorian Death Watch warriors – led by a female character voiced by Katee Sackhoff. Filoni revealed this character is the lieutenant for Pre Vizsla (voiced by Jon Favreau).

The duo also talked about the new Jedi character, General Krell, who comes from the same species as Dexter Jettster. Silver described him as an "Unconventional Jedi with unconventional methods," who "Causes the clones to question things in different ways."

Speaking about what else is to come on the show, Filoni confirmed that besides the Nightsisters in general, Asajj Ventress would return, as would Savage Opress, who has been sent on a mission to find a character who certainly looked like he could be Darth Maul.

There will also be a lot of developments with bounty hunters – or bounty hunters to be – with the return of Bossk and Boba Fett and the Clone Wars introduction of the one, the only… Dengar!

Filoni promised we'd get a continuation of elements introduced in the Mortis trilogy, saying they intended to delve into, "More about those type of mystical things in the future. You'll learn more about who those force wielders ('Father', 'Son' and 'Daughter') are. That wasn't an ending as much as a beginning."

With Chewbacca coming to The Clone Wars last season, Filoni was asked if we might meet a young Han Solo on the show. Filoni quickly replied, "I can answer that. No. Unless George really insisted on that, I don't want to be the guy who defines that."

When a fan asked if Ahsoka will figure out that Anakin and Padme are married, Filoni said that while that specifically might not happen, they would explore, "How do people not know about that? We will address that in the future of the show." Musing about what Ahsoka's reaction would be if she did find out, Filoni remarked, "Ashoka might be let down but I don't know that she'd say anything." He also said that they were going to get into a lot of issues about how the Jedi struggle to not form attachments when having natural connections with others, via Ahsoka and her friend Lux, who was introduced last season.